Receiver and Golden Living Lead Turnaround for South Dakota Nursing Facilities

11/8/2019

Patrick Connole

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When it became necessary for Frisco, Texas-based Golden Living Family of Companies to form a receivership company to provide critical support for troubled South Dakota long term and post-acute care facilities in 2018, top executive Wanda Prince says the key message she relayed to staff at 18 skilled nursing centers and one assisted living community was reassurance that the resources needed to care for residents would be there for them, as well as their paychecks.

The term receivership refers to a legal process in which a party is appointed as a receiver and serves as the arm of the court to temporarily maintain a business until a permanent solution is found.

Prince, a registered nurse and senior vice president and Operations Committee chair, Golden Living, says she models her behavior in these types of situations to offer relief to the employees who have been exposed to an “unstable” situation where a previous operator indicated it could not meet the most basic operational needs going forward.

“It was really all about calmness and reassurance,” Prince says. The ability to make sure others are in a good place mentally and physically is born out of her many years not only working as an executive but from her training and experience as a nurse.

“I think the two work together,” she notes, pointing to her nursing career and her operations role for Golden Living.

And, even as the facilities went through some challenging times, she says it is apparent that the communities had good teams in place to care for residents, and simply needed leadership support like that given by the receivership company, with the help of Golden Living’s administrative services affiliate, to make sure bills are being paid for staples like food and electricity and timely disbursement of paychecks to employees is taking place.

“The South Dakota facility personnel truly cared about the residents and provide high-quality care, and that was key to making this work. They had no control over the financial situation,” Prince says. “It was all about making sure the bills were paid for food, paychecks, the basics of resident care.”

The Golden Living affiliates were just one of the organizations affected across many states by the demise of Skyline Healthcare, the New Jersey firm that in January 2017 had become the operator of the facilities through a lease arrangement. In early 2018 Skyline became delinquent on bills and failed to pay for items like basic water service, which ultimately threatened the viability of buildings across the state.

In the spring of that year, Golden Living’s property owner affiliates received court and regulatory approval for a receivership. The court appointed the Golden Living affiliate Black Hills Receiver for the former Skyline operator tenants. At stake in this action was the fate of some 1,000 employees at the 19 facilities and 900 residents. The Black Hills Receiver assembled a team of experts and solved critical vendor issues in order to provide additional support and stability.

In the end, Prince points to the ability of the staff to adapt to the changes that occurred while providing high-quality care to residents, which was made even more evident when in 2019 six of the eight South Dakota providers to receive the highly valued Bronze Quality Award from the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) were Black Hills properties.

“It was so rewarding to see these dedicated, committed, and talented leaders receive the Bronze Quality Award at the AHCA/NCAL convention in Orlando—a true testament to their pursuit of excellence,” Prince says. In addition, she received letters of acknowledgement from the leadership in the South Dakota facilities, thanking her for supporting their teams in their quests for recognition through the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Awards program.

“I think the best part of this difficult situation was seeing the genuine kindness and loyalty the South Dakota facility teams showed by continuing to work and care for all of their residents, even when they knew there was a risk of receiving no paycheck,” she says.

These leaders and caregivers show up every day, despite sometimes challenging circumstances, and impact so many lives with the care they provide. “I could not be more proud of the South Dakota leaders and staff, and I congratulate them all on this outstanding accomplishment,” Prince says.

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